A Cumbrian singer has described the moment police stormed a Las Vegas hotel as gunman Stephen Paddock fired shots from his 32nd floor window.

Amanda Tinkler, from Crosby Garrett, near Penrith, was with her boyfriend and sister Kim and her boyfriend, watching the Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil show at the Mandalay Bay as Paddock fired thousands of shots from the 32nd floor.

His attack killed 59 people and injured more than 500.

Amanda, who now lives in Los Angeles, told the News & Star that at one point she believed she would not leave the building alive.

“We were about 45 minutes into the show when the music stopped and the announcement came on the sound system that they had to stop the show to monitor a situation unfolding inside the hotel,” she said.

“At first we thought it was a technical difficulty or something, but the longer it went on, the more we started to wonder.”

Amanda said that people inside the theatre used their mobile phones to find any information about what was going on outside and immediately found reports of a gunman or multiple gunmen.

“There was just an air of panic that started to build inside the theatre,” she said. “After about 10 minutes of waiting, multiple armed police stormed in and barricaded us inside.”

The police then asked that all the lights be turned off.

“There was a moment when someone tried to get in the theatre doors and the police shouted ‘get down, get down now,’” Amanda said.

“Everybody scrambled and got down. To be honest, this was the scariest moment for me, not being certain what or who was on the other side of the door or whether or not the police were going to be able to protect the area we were in.

“We were down for a good 10 minutes but it felt like an eternity. I thought to myself ‘this is it, we aren’t getting out of here’.”

Amanda said that those inside the theatre were then told to get up from the floor. With little knowledge of what was going on just outside the hotel - other than there was an active gunman - she again began searching the internet for answers.

“After about an hour of panicking up and down under our chairs each time the police instructed us to do so, they started allowing people to use a guarded restroom,” Amanda said.

“But as you can imagine, there were 1,800 people inside and the lines were really long. But about 10 minutes into allowing people to into the restroom, the police shouted at everyone to get back inside the theatre fast and get back under our seats.

“Again, we didn’t know what was happening and I think that probably terrified us even more because it was just the unknown, it was chaos.”

Amanda said that once police were certain the gunman had been taken down, a plan was put in place to evacuate the audience from the theatre. The intention was for people to be taken by bus to the airport, where they could then be collected and taken back to their hotels.

“They took maybe 25 per cent of the 1,800 people in the theatre this way and it was mostly people with medical conditions or older people.

“We unfortunately had to wait until around 6.30am to be told that we wouldn’t be going on a bus but the police would escort us to the Luxor Hotel which was down the street and we could be collected from there.

“This was an extremely scary walk which took around 15 minutes as we exited below the hotel in an underground passage and onto the street which was just empty, with nothing but flashing blue and red lights with police guards either side walking with us - and up above us watching from hotel rooftops for protection.”

Amanda, her sister and their boyfriends made it back to their hotel at around 7.30am.

“I know this situation could have been much worse for us and my heart hurts deeply for all of those people who lost someone, were in the line of fire or were injured during this sickening attack,” Amanda said.

“It’s something I hope that nobody ever has to relive ever again. I will be forever grateful to the Las Vegas police who put their lives in danger to protect us - that is something I will never forget.”

The massacre has again sparked a debate in the United States about the second amendment to the constitution - which gives citizens the right to bear arms.

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump spoke out as an “ardent protector” of the second amendment - a far cry from his predecessor Barack Obama, who attempted to tackle gun violence in the US.

“There definitely needs to be a conversation about gun reform because these tragedies just can’t keep on happening and now is definitely the time,” Amanda said. “I don’t think waiting helps anyone.

“I think what Obama was attempting to do near the end of his term was at least on the right track to making things a little safer for everyone with routine mental evaluations and background checks.

“Unfortunately he just got a lot of opposition as the right to carry a firearm is written into the constitution.”